Tentering machine



Patented May 15, 1945 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFlCE TENTERING MACHINE Maurice G. Hinnekens, Paterson, N. J.

' Application November 18, 1944, Serial No. 564,048

1 Claim.

, This invention relates to cloth tentering machines or machines characterized by including two side-by-side tenter-rails that provide guide-- ways for endless chains composed of cloth-gripping clips which, as the chains-travel with their adjoining stretches moving in the same direction, advance the cloth and at the same time stretch it transversely. In any such machine the rails are adjustable simultaneously together or apart so that difierent widths of cloth may be treated and, further, the end portions of the rails are pivotally adjustable in horizontal planes so as to be positioned in some particular converging relation to each other thus to facilitate entry of the cloth edges to the clips of the chains. Each such end portion I hereinafter term an end section and all the rest of the corresponding rail (which, because of its considerable longitudinal extent, is usually composedof rail-lengths pivoted together on vertical axes, though this is immaterial to the present invention) I term the body section. For adjusting the rails together or apart, each as a whole, there is a rotary transmission system having what I term branch-portions respectively operatively connected with the body section and with a slide on which the end sec tion is pivotally supported and also having a disconnective clutch in the branch-portion which is connected to the slide, said clutch, when in disconnected state, permitting independent motion of the slide and hence angular displacement of the end section relatively to the body section, as in varying the convergence of the end sections of the two rails. This transmitting means is driven by a suitable motor, usually of the electric type.

Now a fault of a tentering machine of the instant class has been that the operator may open the clutch for the purpose of effecting angular adjustment of the end sections and, failing to close it, start th motor for effecting bodily or general adjustment of the rails toward or from each other which, because the slides would then be left stationary, tends to cause the end sections to swing about their pivotal connections with the slides and sets up a cramped state of the various parts and frequently results in serious injury to the machine. It is therefore the purpose of this invention to eliminate this fault by providing for a certain control.

The invention is essentially concerned with either rail and its attendant mechanism and so only one such rail and such mechanism are therefore herein shown and described.

In the drawing,

Fig. 1 is a plan of such rail and mechanism;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged plan of that part of the slide-displacing branch-portion of the transmission system which includes the'mentioned clutch; and

Fig- 3 is an enlarged plan of the parts directly involved in the control.

The body section of the tenter-rail is what is here shown as comprising rail-lengths l pivoted togetherat la, though in so far as the present invention is concerned it may be a single structure, as noted. The end section is at 2, being pivoted at 2a to the body section on a'vertical axis. It rests on and is pivoted-on a vertical axis 3a to a slide 3. The two sections are formed with endless clip-guiding grooves Ix. Supporting structure. for the tenter-railis provided by the standards 4 having horizontal cross-rails 5 on which the body section and the slide are movable lengthwise of the cross-rails ortransversely of the rail. The body section may be regarded as including slides (not shown) similar to the slide 3 and having sliding contact with'the corresponding cross-rails.

The mentioned rotary transmitting system is hereof conventional form, thus: A rotary lineshaft 6 extends parallel with the rail and, through gearing in housings l on the respective cross-rails, drives rotary screws 8 and 9 all in the same direction. These screws all have their ends shown threaded in the same direction Their other ends, appearing broken away and. which eifect transverse displacement of the unshown tenter-rail of the machine, are threaded reversely. The screws 8 I treat, collectively, as forming one branch portion of said system; so much of said system as includes, with the screw 9, the portion of the line-shaft which extends to the right from the gearing in the second housing 1, reading from the extreme right in Fig, 1, I treat as forming the other branch. The screws 8 are in threaded engagement with the body section and-the screw 9 is in threaded engagement with the slide of the end section of the tenterrail. The gearing by which the line-shaft is connected with each screw 8 may be the same as that shown in Fig. 2, to wit, comprising two intermeshing bevel-gears land I I, excepting that such gears are respectively fast to the line-shaft and screw. But, in the case of the gearing by which the line-shaft drives the screw 9, whereas one gear thereof is fast the other may be made fast or loose: thus, in the example the gear I0 is fast to the line-shaft but the gear II is arranged to be free to rotate on the screw except when a clutch i2, having a handwheel I 2a and splined to the screw at I3, is engaged with said gear, which is formed as shown at Ila to assume clutch-engagement with the clutch.

A motor l4 through any reduction gearing (not shown) in a housing [5 drives the line-shaft. The energy (here electrical) for driving the motor travels via a conductor I6 from one of two service lines I! and back to the other, lla being a circuit maker and breaker which actually, since the motor is reversible, forms a switch to direct the current through by-pass I8 of the conductor when the motor is to be reversed.

When the motor is driven in either direction the tenter-rail as a whole is displaced in one direction or the other rectilineally and transversely of itself. If angular displacement of the end section is required the motor is arrested and the attendant opens the clutch and turns screw 9 by means of the hand-wheel.

If, now, he starts the motor and hence rotates said system without re-engaging the clutch there will be rectilinear transverse displacement of the body section while the end section remains anchored against such movement at its free end by the slide 3, held immovable by its (non-rotating) screw 9, and thus caused to swing about its pivot 3a. A cramped state of the parts may obviously thus ensue, possibly resulting in serious injury to the machine, for instance, in that the adjoining ends of the two sections, as at :c or :13 may come to abut each other, the space allowance at these points being usually quite limited so that the chain clips can pass from one section to the other without undue disturbance.

In order, therefore, to afiord control under such condition, to wit, by arresting the motor, I provide one of the two sections (here the body section) with a normally closed interrupter for the conductor and the other with an abutment to engage and move the interrupter to open position. The interrupter here consists of an elastic electro-conductive blade [9 afiixed to a box 20, itself with a roller ISb. The abutment is here an arm 2| aflixed to the end section and having spaced terminals 2 la between which the roller, when the two sections are alined, exists free of either terminal. Thereby, if the attendant, having manually adjusted the end section to the required angular relation, should start the motor to effect transverse rectilineal displacement of the tenterrail in the direction further angularly to displace the end section without having closed the clutch, the said abutment, by one of its terminals, will engage the roller of the interrupter, thus interrupting flow of energy to and arresting the motor. It will be understood that the said terminals are spaced to permit ample angular manual adjustment of the end section without moving the interrupter to open state.

thereto a circuit-closer I91: and being equipped Having thus fully described my invention what I claim is:

In a tentering machine, the combination of alined body and end tenter-rail sections pivoted together on a vertical axis to permit angular displacement of the end section, a slide carrying the end section and to which the latter is pivoted on a vertical axis, supporting means for the body section and slide, a rotary system for transmiting simultaneous rectilineal displacement to said body section and slide in one direction transversely of the former, said system having branch portions respectively connected to said body section and slide and having a disconnective clutch in the branch portion which is connected to the slide, a motor for rotating said system in the direction to move said body section and slide in the first-named direction and operatively connected with said system, and means to conduct energy to the motor having a normally closed interrupter therein, one of said sections supporting the interrupter and the other having an abutment arranged to engage and move the interrupter to open position when the motor rotates said system, with the clutch in disconnective state, in the direction to move said body section in said firstnamed direction.

MAURICE G. HINNEKENS. 

